Matt Foglia of PostWorks, New York Wins CAS Award

Re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Matt Foglia of PostWorks, New York earned this year's Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing Award for his contributions as re-recording mixer on Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us. The concert film debuted on A&E in October 2006, and an expanded version was released on DVD in November.

Foglia's win is his second straight. Last year's honor came for his work on the PBS special Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London 1975.

Foglia's latest winning project combines live performance footage from McCartney's sold-out 2005 U.S. tour with other behind-the-scenes tour footage and interviews. Captured in HD by producer/director Mark Haefeli of New York-based Mark Haefeli Productions (MHP), the film features a custom 5.1 surround mix courtesy of Foglia and co-winner, music producer/mixer David Kahne.

For the project, Haefeli and editors Zoran Jevremov and Mitch Jacobson provided original media footage of the documentary and musical portions of the program to Foglia, who also received music mixes and isolated audience tracks from Kahne. Foglia then reconformed all of the music in stereo and 5.1, along with all of the accompanying audience tracks. Monitoring primarily in 5.1, Foglia mixed the documentary sections (effecting background layers and music provided by Jevremov), created sound design, sweetened the transitions and developed audience blends.

According to Foglia, his biggest challenge came in designing the sound mix prior to the beginning of the first song, "Magical Mystery Tour." "Mark and Zoran wanted the beginning to escalate in level and intensity, similar to a space launch, so that when the first song started, the intensity was at a maximum," Foglia explained. "There were so many clips, layers and internal edits, it took a lot of balancing to achieve that effect sonically, while also abiding by the network's specifications.

"Mark produces and directs a lot of amazing projects, and he gives me freedom to 'do my thing,' so working with him and his company is always a great experience," Foglia adds.

Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us is the third McCartney TV special produced by MHP that features Foglia's talents. For Paul McCartney: In Red Square, Foglia received an Emmy nomination.